Radical Imam Linked to Fort Hood Suspect Has Support in BritainThursday, November 12, 2009

A radical preacher who allegedly inspired the Fort Hood gunman has a large following in Britain and counts prominent mainstream Muslims among his supporters.

The FBI is investigating communications between Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at the Texas army base last week, and Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Muslim cleric now based in Yemen. al-Awlaki, 38, who described Major Hasan on his blog as "a hero," has been a regular visitor to Britain and delivers frequent lectures to British audiences by video or via the internet.

Counter-terrorism sources said yesterday that al-Awlaki was barred from entering Britain on security grounds while the anti-extremist Quilliam Foundation said he was "perhaps the most influential pro-jihadist ideologue preaching in English today."

Despite his extremist reputation, the cleric had attracted support from mainstream British Muslim groups. Azad Ali, president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, wrote last November that al-Awlaki was "one of my favorite speakers and scholars." ....

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

A formal announcement about the charges against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is expected later Thursday. Two U.S. military officials described the charges to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly.

The officials said it is not yet decided whether to charge Hasan with a 14th count of murder related to the death of the unborn child of a pregnant shooting victim.

A formal announcement about the charges against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is expected later Thursday. Two U.S. military officials described the charges to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly.

The officials said it is not yet decided whether to charge Hasan with a 14th count of murder related to the death of the unborn child of a pregnant shooting victim.

A formal announcement about the charges against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is expected later Thursday. Two U.S. military officials described the charges to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly.

The officials said it is not yet decided whether to charge Hasan with a 14th count of murder related to the death of the unborn child of a pregnant shooting victim.

NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors Thursday took steps to seize four U.S. mosques and a Fifth Avenue skyscraper owned by a nonprofit Muslim organization long suspected of being secretly controlled by the Iranian government.

In what could prove to be one of the biggest counterterrorism seizures in U.S. history, prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court seeking the forfeiture of more than $500 million in assets of the Alavi Foundation and an alleged front company.

The assets include Islamic centers in New York City, Maryland, California and Houston, more than 100 acres of land in Virginia, and a 36-story office tower in New York.

Seizing the properties would be a sharp blow against Iran, which has been accused by the U.S. government of bankrolling terrorism and seeking a nuclear bomb.

A telephone call and e-mail to Iran's U.N. Mission seeking comment were not immediately answered. It is extremely rare for U.S. law enforcement authorities to seize a house of worship, a step fraught with questions about the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

Senior Sergeant Mark Todd doesn't consider himself a hero, but spend five minutes with him and you'll know that's exactly what he is.

He and fellow Sergeant Kimberly Munley were the first officers to arrive at the shooting scene in Fort Hood last week where 13 people lost their lives. Sr. Sgt. Todd told us when he first got the call, he thought it might have been people mistaking soldiers practicing a 21 gun salute for real gunfire. But as he got closer, the police dispatcher said she too had heard gunfire.

When Todd and Munley arrived, people pointed in the direction of the shooter. Then they saw him. He started firing at them and they split up. The next time Todd saw him, Todd says he drew the gunman's attention away from the crowd and the gunman started firing at Todd again. Todd makes a point to say that both he and Officer Munley are responsible for stopping the suspect, but with Munley wounded, it was Sr. Sgt. Todd who cuffed the suspect. In a statement that speaks to Todd's character, he says the real heros are the medics who then began to minister to the wounded. Initially, Todd wanted to remain anonymous.

He says, "I’m a police officer. I showed up, I did my job." But of course, it's more than that. Sr. Sgt. Todd spent 22 years in the military himself. After retirement, he wanted to continue to serve, so he became a police officer. Sr. Sgt. Todd had never fired his weapon in the course of his job until last week. He credits good training for his quick response.

I think you are exactly right HEART. They are both heroes. When I read the accounts of what happened, I knew that it was Todd that really brought him down. But they were both willing to run after him and stand toe to toe with him as long as they could. I am proud of them both, and know they are both not wanting to be heroes at all. They would probably just say they were doing their job.

I have had the honor of knowing many LE that were just like them. Some came out of their shootouts alive, some did not.

Logged

Jesus loves the little children, all the children in the world.Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.

During an appearance on CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday, Todd said that after Munley was shot, he "drew [the gunman's] attention towards me and then he opened fire and then I neutralized him and secured him."

The statement appears to confirm an eyewitness account in the New York Times that credits Todd with bringing down Hasan, but Todd was careful to use the term "we" in other references to the incident during his interview with "Early Show" co-host Harry Smith.

On Wednesday, Munley appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" alongside Todd and described the scene as "confusing and chaotic" but she remembers getting shot.

Munley said it felt like "a muscle being torn out of my leg."

The 34-year-old Munley is out of the hospital after undergoing two surgeries. The 42-year-old Todd was not wounded.

Todd, a military veteran, said the Fort Hood shooting was the first time in his career that he used his weapon and credits his training with preparing him for the situation.

"Training is everything," he told Smith. "In a situation like this you don't have to think, you just react."

Hasan to Face Death PenaltyMilitary Court to Try Major in Fort Hood Massacre; Inquiry Into Missed Warning Signs

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN, PETER SPIEGEL and EVAN PEREZ

Military prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for alleged Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was formally charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder, according to a senior Army officer familiar with the matter.

The last execution of an active duty serviceman took place in 1961.[Hasan] Associated Press

Nidal Malik Hasan in 2007

Despite evidence that Maj. Hasan had contact with a radical Muslim cleric, the decision to file the murder charges against him in military court, rather than in a civilian one, reflects the Army's belief that the suspect acted alone and without any assistance from foreign or domestic terror groups.

Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, said military investigators believe Maj. Hasan was the sole gunman in the assault, which killed 13 people and wounded 29 others.

After interviewing hundreds of witnesses and examining material, including a computer taken from his apartment, investigators believe that he acted without the knowledge or assistance of foreign or domestic terror groups, Army officials and others familiar with the probe said.Related

Military prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. WSJ's Military Correspondent Yochi Dreazen joins The News Hub with details.

An Army official said in a separate interview that military prosecutors will seek to have Maj. Hasan put to death by lethal injection. "Given the magnitude of this crime, it's the only punishment that should even be considered," the officer said.

The murder charges against Maj. Hasan come as investigators ramp up their efforts to determine if warning signs were missed that could have helped prevent the shootings.

President Barack Obama ordered a government-wide investigation into whether federal agencies, including the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community, properly shared the information about Maj. Hasan collected before last week's shooting.

Mr. Obama asked the heads of the Defense Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct the inquiry during a White House meeting the day after the shooting, according to an administration official. Mr. Obama formalized the directive in a presidential memorandum Thursday.

The White House official wouldn't say whether Maj. Hasan's links to a radical imam in Yemen prompted the review, but Mr. Obama was shown copies of some of the emails the alleged shooter sent to the imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, the day of the shooting and ordered the review the following morning.

The National Security Agency intercepted 10 to 20 communications over the past year between Maj. Hasan and Mr. Awlaki, who knew three of the Sept. 11 hijackers and hailed Maj. Hasan as a "hero" after the shootings.

The emails between Maj. Hasan and Mr. Awlaki were intercepted in a separate sweep that didn't target Maj. Hasan. Terrorism investigators assigned to an FBI joint terrorism task force, which included a Defense Department investigator, reviewed the communications but concluded the contacts didn't merit further investigation.

A person familiar with the investigation said Mr. Awlaki's responses to Mr. Hasan appeared restrained and perhaps indicated the imam was suspicious about why an Army officer was reaching out to him.

The terrorism investigators concluded that Maj. Hasan's research work as an Army psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and his work toward a master's degree explained why he was communicating with Mr. Awlaki.

The Pentagon wasn't informed about the emails until after Maj. Hasan's alleged shootings at Fort Hood, a senior defense official said earlier this week.

John P. Galligan, the retired colonel hired to defend Maj. Hasan, said he believed an officer delivered a charge sheet to the major Thursday at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where he is being held under guard. But Mr. Galligan could not provide details, saying he was not there, had not been notified and still had not seen the charges as of late Thursday afternoon.

"I feel blindsided," Mr. Galligan said. "Had I known, I certainly would have been down there."

The Senate Homeland Security Committee will be conducting its own investigation into the government's handling of Maj. Hasan in the run-up to the attacks. The first Senate hearings on the shootings will take place Wednesday.

The sprawling Walter Reed medical center in suburban Washington is emerging as a main focus of the investigation, with some officials questioning whether hospital authorities should have done more to alert law-enforcement personnel that some of Maj. Hasan's colleagues there harbored deep suspicions about him and wondered about his mental state.

Maj. Hasan did his psychiatric residency at Walter Reed and spent more than six years there. In the days since the shootings, some of his former colleagues have said that Maj. Hasan performed substandard work and occasionally expressed Islamist views they found alarming.

Dr. S. Ward Casscells III, a retired Army colonel, supervised the military medical system as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs during the last years of the George W. Bush administration, when Maj. Hasan was a resident at Walter Reed.

"They said he was strange and not very happy as a psychiatrist -- not doing very well and not flagrantly failing either," said Dr. Casscells, who did not know Maj. Hasan himself. "People weren't sending him patients and that must have made him feel bad professionally."

The physicians told Dr. Casscells that Maj. Hasan's personality was "that of a loner" and that the psychiatrist was "given to anger at times." They did not mention any concerns about Maj. Hasan's religious views.

The Army's intent to seek the death penalty in the Hasan case will likely set off years of legal wrangling. No active-duty troops have been executed in nearly 50 years, and defendants in military death penalty cases can appeal their convictions in a series of military and civilian courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even if a ruling is fully upheld, the president has to personally approve an order to carry out the execution, further slowing the process, according to Eugene R. Fidell, an expert on the military justice system at the Yale Law School.

In a notorious recent case, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death in a court-martial for rolling a grenade into tent filled with U.S. soldiers in Kuwait in April 2003. Four years after he was sentenced to death, his case is still stalled at the first appellate level of the courts.—Ben Casselman, Michael M. Phillips and Russell Gold contributed to this story.

Vigil Held For Wisconsin Soldier Killed In Ft. Hood ShootingColleagues At Bryant And Stratton Describe Him As A Special Man

MILWAUKEE -- There was a vigil held in downtown Milwaukee on Tuesday evening to honor a Wisconsin soldier killed in the Fort Hood shooting.

Captain Russell Seager was a nurse practitioner in the mental health field. He was also an instructor at Bryant and Stratton College.

Seager's colleagues felt that it was very important to acknowledge what a special man that he was and how much he meant to them.

Many gathered to remember him.

"When he came to the lab, he just filled the space with his laughter he had such a beautiful sense of humor," said Kathleen Olewinski, Bryant and Stratton medical asst. program director.

Seager taught classes at the college four nights a week. In the classroom where he taught there is now a slideshow of pictures that constantly plays at the front of the classroom.

"He was an outstanding teacher. We very much appreciate the service he gave to his country, but he was also our friend," said Stephen Mcevoy, Bryant and Stratton Dean of Education.

Seager's colleagues described him as a quite, but humorous man.

The army reservist had shipped off at the end of the summer for a tour of duty in the Middle East. He intended to help soldiers cope with what they experienced on the frontlines.

"His goal was really to help heal the soldiers," Olewinski said.

Olewinski was Seager's supervisor and had known him for 21 years. She said that the last correspondence that she had with him was in October, but she didn’t realize that he was at Fort Hood after she learned of the shooting that happened.

The news of his death hit the campus hard.

"We miss him dearly and desperately already," Olewinski said.

Olewinski said that Seager left an impression on all of his students and he always stressed the importance of an education. The medical lab will be renamed and dedicated in his honor.

"He had several masters' degrees and he was going for an additional doctorate in education and always told students this was just a stepping stone. They could do anything," Olewinski said.

Seager's family has been quietly and privately grieving since his death. Those who gathered on Thursday were friends, colleagues and students.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama ordered a government-wide investigation into whether federal agencies, including the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community, properly handled information on alleged Fort Hood gunman Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan before last week's shooting that left 13 dead.

Mr. Obama originally asked the heads of the Defense Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct the inquiry during a White House meeting the day after the shooting, according to a White House official. But Mr. Obama formalized the review in a presidential memorandum Thursday.

The White House official wouldn't say whether Maj. Hasan's links to a radical imam in Yemen prompted the review, but Mr. Obama was shown copies of some of the emails the alleged shooter sent to the imam, Anwar al-Alakwi, the day of the shooting and ordered the review the following morning.

The communications between Mr. Awlaki and Maj. Hasan consisted of between 10 and 20 contacts over the past year and turned up in an intelligence sweep in a probe of Mr. Awlaki that didn't target Maj. Hasan. The imam knew three of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers and hailed Maj. Hasan as a "hero" after the Fort Hood shooting last week.

But terrorism investigators assigned to an FBI joint terrorism task force, which included a Defense Department investigator, reviewed the communications and concluded the contacts didn't merit further investigation.

According to a person familiar to the investigation, Mr. Alakwi's responses to Maj. Hasan's emails appeared restrained, indicating the imam may have been suspicious about why an U.S. Army officer was reaching out to him.

Terrorism investigators concluded that Maj. Hasan's research work as an Army psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and his work toward a master's degree explained why he was communicating with Mr. Awlaki.

The presidential memorandum asks Defense Secretary Robert Gates; FBI Director Robert Mueller; and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair to identify all personnel and intelligence files relevant to the Fort Hood shooting, particularly those on Maj. Hasan.

"I directed an immediate review be initiated to determine how any such intelligence was handled, shared, and acted upon within individual departments and agencies and what intelligence was shared with others," Mr. Obama said in the memorandum.

Mr. Obama met with Messrs. Gates and Mueller and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the night of the shooting, and he asked all three -- plus Mr. Blair and Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center -- back to the White House the following morning, where he ordered the investigation.

Mr. Blair launched his own examination earlier this week to follow "every lead and [examine] all information" on Maj. Hasan, said DNI spokesman Ross Feinstein.

Mr. Blair would "continue to act in accordance" with Mr. Obama's order to determine how intelligence was handled and acted upon, he said.

White House officials said Mr. Obama is interested in finding out whether the attack could have been avoided and whether changes are needed to prevent such incidents from happening again.

He has ordered the agencies to report back with their preliminary findings by the end of the month. Although each agency will conduct its own review, Mr. Obama assigned John Brennan, the White House's top homeland-security and counterterrorism official, to oversee the review's findings.—Siobhan Gorman contributed to this article.

FORT HOOD, Tex. -- Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on soldiers at Fort Hood last week, has been charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of 12 soldiers and a civilian and could face other charges, an Army official said Thursday.

Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Division and for the joint task force investigating the crime, said Hasan "has been charged with 13 specifications of premeditated murder under Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice." He told a news conference that "additional charges may be preferred in the future."

Article 118 covers premeditated murder, for which the maximum penalty under the military justice system is death and the mandatory minimum is life imprisonment with eligibility for parole.

Grey described the murder charges as "the first step in the court martial process" and emphasized that a multi-agency investigation of the Nov. 5 shooting continues. He indicated that investigators have not yet settled on a motive for the massacre.

"We're looking at every reason for this shooting," he said. "We're aggressively following every possible lead."

Grey added: "We still believe that there was only one gunman at the scene involved in the actual shootings." The statement left open the possibility that someone else instigated the attack. Investigators have been examining Hasan's relationship with a radical Muslim prayer leader who formerly served at a Northern Virginia mosque that Hasan attended for a time in 2001. Hasan, who was born in Arlington County, lived in the Washington area while he was attending medical school in Bethesda and subsequently while he was working at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.

The White House, meanwhile, said President Obama has ordered a review of how U.S. intelligence agencies handled information about Hasan and asked that preliminary results be provided by Nov. 30. Obama directed John Brennan, a presidential assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism, to oversee the investigation, which is aimed in part at determining whether warning signs about Hasan were missed.ad_icon

According to a memo released Thursday by the White House, Obama ordered the investigation the day after the shootings. In the memo to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, National Intelligence Director Dennis C. Blair and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Obama said he wanted the review "to determine how any such intelligence was handled, shared and acted upon within individual departments and agencies and what intelligence was shared with others."

At Fort Hood, Grey said he would not release any details that might jeopardize the investigation or the eventual legal proceedings. But he suggested one argument for premeditation when he told reporters that Hasan did not have any legitimate reason to be at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center last Thursday.

"We do know that the suspect was not at the Readiness Center for any scheduled appointments or command-directed activity," Grey said as he stood with representatives of other agencies investigating the crime, including the FBI and Texas Rangers.

Authorities have said Hasan will be tried in a military court because he is a service member, the shooting took place on an Army post, and all of those slain were Defense Department personnel. Of the 13 who died, four were officers, eight were enlisted soldiers and one was a retired chief warrant officer who was working as a civilian at Fort Hood.

Hasan, 39, allegedly opened fire Nov. 5 with two handguns on unarmed soldiers who were preparing for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The attack at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center also left 38 people wounded. It has been described as the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. military installation.

I have been here and reading every post you are making HEART. I would like to comment on them, but I will refrain. I just want you to know you are appreciated for your diligence in doing this. As I have told you before, I you for doing this.

Logged

Jesus loves the little children, all the children in the world.Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.

FORT HOOD, TEXAS --The Army psychiatrist accused in the Fort Hood shootings was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the military's legal system, making him eligible for the death penalty if convicted, officials said Thursday.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama ordered a review of all intelligence related to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and whether it was properly shared and acted upon within individual government agencies.

The announcement comes as members of Congress are pressuring for a full investigation in why Hasan was not detected and stopped. A Senate hearing on Hasan is scheduled for next week. The Senate Homeland Security Committee announced it is opening its own investigation this week.

U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Chris Grey said at a news conference that additional charges may be filed against Hasan.

Officials told The Associated Press before the news conference that it had not been decided whether to charge Hasan with a 14th count of murder related to the death of the unborn child of a pregnant shooting victim. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly.

John Galligan, Hasan's civilian attorney, said his military co-counsel told him that charges were being read to Hasan in the hospital without his lawyers present.

"I don't like it. I feel like I'm being left out of the loop," Galligan said. "I guess it's 13 charges, but I don't like to have to guess in this situation."

Grey said investigators believe Hasan was the lone gunman. Hasan was not at the Soldier Readiness Center for any pre-deployment activities when he allegedly opened fire last week, Grey said. The readiness center, parking lots and four other post buildings were still being treated as crime scenes, and the investigation remained open.

"We have a duty and obligation to protect the constitutional rights of everyone involved," Grey said.

The White House review will be overseen by John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, and the first results are due to the White House by Nov. 30.

Obama also ordered the preservation of the intelligence. Members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical imam and others of concern to the U.S., and what they did with the information.

The FBI confirmed this week that the U.S. government knew about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical American imam beginning in December 2008.

Months before the shootings, doctors and staff overseeing Hasan's training reported viewing him at times as belligerent, defensive and argumentative in his frequent discussions of his Muslim faith, according to a military official familiar with several group discussions about Hasan. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hasan was characterized in meetings as a mediocre student and lazy worker, a matter of concern among the doctors and staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, a military medical school in Bethesda, Md., the official said.

The concerns about Hasan's performance and religious views were shared with other military officials considering his assignment after he finished his medical training, and the consensus was to send the 39-year-old psychiatrist to Fort Hood in Texas, the official said.

One of the largest military installations, it was considered the best assignment for Hasan because other doctors could handle the workload if he continued to perform poorly and his superiors could document any continued behavior problems, the official said.

Hasan repeatedly referred to his strong religious views in discussions with classmates, his superiors and even in his research work, the official said. His behavior, while at times perceived as intense and combative, was not unlike the zeal of others with strong religious views. But some doctors and staff were concerned that their unfamiliarity with the Muslim faith would lead them to unfairly single out Hasan's behavior, the official said.

Some in the group questioned Hasan's sympathies as an Army psychiatrist, whether he would be more aligned with Muslims fighting U.S. troops. There also was some concern about whether he should continue to serve in the military, the official said.

At one point, Hasan's supervisors ordered him to attend a university lecture series on Islam, the Middle East and terrorism, hoping to steer him toward productive work addressing potential concerns of Muslims in the military, according to The Washington Post. Hasan attended the lectures late last year or early this year, The Post reported Thursday, quoting a Walter Reed staff member who spoke anonymously because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly.

A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan's repeated contact with a radical Muslim cleric who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said in a statement late Wednesday that the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism.

The doctors and staff who discussed concerns about Hasan had several group conversations about him that started in early 2008 during regular monthly meetings and ended as he was finishing a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychology this summer, the official familiar with the discussions said.

They saw no signs of mental problems, no risk factors that would predict violent behavior. And the group discussed other factors that suggested Hasan would continue to thrive in the military, factors that mitigated their concerns, the official said.

According to the official, records reviewed by Hasan's superiors described nearly 20 years of military service, including nearly eight years as an enlisted soldier; completion of three rigorous medical school programs, albeit as a student the group characterized in their discussions as mediocre; his resilience after the deaths of his parents early in his medical education, and an otherwise polite and gentle nature when not discussing religion.

Citing the investigation and the Privacy Act, the Army and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences have released only minimal details of Hasan's career. He entered the Army in 1997 as a 2nd lieutenant and started the medical school program, according to a service spokesman in Washington.

But school records from Barstow Community College in Barstow, Calif., where Hasan was a student from 1989 to 1990, show his military service began much earlier. Maureen Stokes, a spokeswoman for the college, said the records indicate he was a private first class with an infantry unit at Fort Irwin, Calif. Hasan received 10 credits for his military experience, she said.

John Wagstaffe, a Fort Irwin spokesman, said that based upon the school records it would appear that Hasan was stationed at Fort Irwin. But he said base officials have not been able to locate the military records to verify that.

The Pentagon has found no evidence that Hasan formally sought release from the Army as a conscientious objector or for any other reason, two senior military officials told The Associated Press. Family members have said he wanted to get out of the Army and had sought legal advice, suggesting that Hasan's anxiety as a Muslim over his pending deployment overseas might have been a factor in the deadly rampage.

Hasan had complained privately to colleagues that he was harassed for his religion and that he wanted to get out of the Army. But there is no record of Hasan filing a complaint with his chain of command regarding any harassment he may have suffered for being Muslim or any record of him formally seeking release from the military, the officials told the AP.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation.

I have been here and reading every post you are making HEART. I would like to comment on them, but I will refrain. I just want you to know you are appreciated for your diligence in doing this. As I have told you before, I you for doing this.

The body of slain Army Pfc. Michael Pearson returned home Thursday as hundreds paid their respects during a somber procession through Chicago and the soldier's hometown of Bolingbrook.

At Bolingbrook High School, where Pearson graduated in 2006, waves of students lined the parking lot to watch the passing motorcade. Members of the school's ROTC program, to which Pearson belonged for his freshman year, wore their navy-blue service uniforms and saluted the fallen soldier as the silver hearse came into view.

Pearson, 21, was one of 13 soldiers -- three from the Chicago area -- killed last week in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas.

A bomb specialist, Pearson was set to deploy to Afghanistan in January.

"I just don't understand how one soldier can do that to another," said Bolingbrook High senior Michael Jacobson as he watched the procession. For ROTC members such as Jacobson, who has enlisted in the Marine Corps, Thursday's procession brought the dangers of military service close to home. "You go into the military knowing you're putting yourself at risk," said Joseph Torres, a Bolingbrook High senior who plans to join the Navy.

"I think today a lot of us understand what that sacrifice can mean."

Pearson's body arrived at Midway International Airport about 10:30 a.m. in a small Falcon 20 aircraft, one week to the day after his murder.

By the time he landed, dozens of uniformed soldiers, veterans, firefighters and police officers had gathered to salute him.

Some waved flags and others looked on solemnly.

The procession, led by a dozen or more members of the northern Illinois chapter of the Patriot Guard on motorcycles, traveled south to Bolingbrook with Pearson's family in tow.

On the way the hearse drove past dozens of area firefighters and police officers who stood in honor of Pearson on freeway overpasses.

In Bolingbrook the procession passed Pearson's home and his former elementary and middle schools.

At the high school students posted hand-drawn signs on the lawn thanking Pearson for his service.

Officials had temporarily suspended classes to allow students to watch the procession.

"These are just little gestures that hopefully will provide some comfort to (Pearson's) family," said Phillip Schoffstall, superintendent of Valley View Central Unified School District 365U.

"Nothing that we have done or would be able to do could lesson the tragedy of the loss of this young man."

The motorcade came to a stop at Fred C. Dames Funeral Home in Joliet, where Pearson's body will remain until it is moved to nearby Lincoln Cemetery for the funeral Saturday.

The family has organized a public viewing for Pearson at 9 a.m. Friday and a public wake at 9 a.m. Saturday, both events taking place at the funeral home at 3200 Black Road.

"The family wants to thank all the people who showed their support for Michael's coming home," said Maj. Bruce Townshend, spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserves in Illinois.

"They were overwhelmed by the warmth and touched by the showing of support."

The hearse carrying the casket of U.S. Army Spc. Michael Pearson passes Bolingbrook High School in Bolingbrook Ill., Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009. Pearson was a shooting victim at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

The remains of Pfc. Michael Pearson, 21, of Bolingbrook were returned to the Chicago area today. A motorcade escorted the hearse as the body was taken from Midway Airport to a Joliet funeral home. People lined the street along the route to pay tribute to Pearson. He was one of 13 people killed during last week's shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

Today, U.S. Army officials charged Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan with the premeditated murder of Pearson and the 12 other victims. He faces the death sentence if convicted.

Pearson will be buried Saturday with full military graveside honors at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery following 2 p.m. services at the Fred C. Dames Funeral Home in Joliet. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 10.p.m. at the funeral home on Friday.

Instead of flowers, the family is requesting memorials in Pearson's name for a music scholarship they will be establishing soon.